Statistics body played politics in refinery row says minister

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was today urged to sack a minister who accused Britain's statistics body of "sinister" motives over immigration.

Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, claimed that the independent Office for National Statistics had been "playing politics" by releasing figures showing that one in nine UK residents was born overseas during a dispute over the use of foreign workers.

He also stressed that he had tried to stop the data from being published.

Senior Tory Michael Fallon, a former chairman of the Commons statistics panel, said: "It's disgraceful, undermining the ONS. You can't have ministers attacking its independence. He should withdraw the comments or be sacked."

Mr Woolas unleashed his extraordinary attack on the ONS after it published figures showing the number of foreign workers in Britain rose 175,000 last year to 2.4million. This compared with a fall of 234,000 in the number of British workers to 27million.

The figures were released during the dispute over the use of foreign workers at an oil refinery in Lincolnshire which left Gordon Brown defending his "British jobs for British workers" slogan.

"Most people believe that it is the Government who have released these figures," Mr Woolas said in a letter to left-wing think tank the Fabian Society.

"In fact, it was the ONS with no ministerial involvement and indeed despite my objections. So, Government gets the blame for whipping up anti-foreign sentiment when it is the independent ONS who are playing politics.

"The justification from the ONS - because it was 'topical' - is at best naive or at worst sinister."